Who else feels like wearing a white toga and donning a laurel leaf crown while munching on a pomegranate? Just me? Oh, well. Let me explain. The pomegranate goes back to ancient Middle East civilizations and was well-known in the Biblical period. Once this historic plant made its way to Greece, it became one of the first foods to be cultivated, much like the fig. The pomegranate then traveled through China and India, and then on to the Mediterranean where it thrived in the dry, hot climate.
Spanish missionaries later brought pomegranates to the New World, and as the missions popped up along California, so did pomegranates. From a 3-foot shrub in the dwarf variety to a towering foot-tall and -wide tree, pomegranates symbolize prosperity and abundance due to their many, many seeds, but they do require a bit of patience as they can take two to three years before beginning to fruit and then five to seven months for fruit to mature. But once your tree is up and running, it is an easy plant to take care of.
To start, pomegranates are both self- and cross-pollinated mainly by bees , so you only need one tree to get fruit, though you can boost production by planting more pollen-heavy flowers in your garden to lure the helpful workers. Plus, in the fall the leaves turn a pleasing fall-inspired yellow before dropping off. For coastal, cooler climate gardens where summers are mild, consider growing an early maturing type, like Golden Globe. Do you want to juice the fruit, or do you want to eat them fresh which means you should look for a softer seed variety?
But be aware that the fruit will not be tasty, so grow this smaller-sized shrub more as a 3-foot ornamental than an edible shrub. This variety is excellent in containers and good for bonsai.
Wonderful: A popular, long-lived, and improved variety with a fountain-like habit and large, purple-red fruit with a deliciously tangy flavor. Also good for making juice and cold hardy to zone 8. Eversweet: As the name implies, this variety is very sweet and, a bonus, virtually seedless. Red skinned with clear, non-stain producing juice. Grows to a foot arching shrub or can be trained as a tree or espalier.
